


Homeworld Fugue

by mage_cat



Series: Home, not Homeworld [7]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, non-romantic Jasper and Peridot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-01-07
Packaged: 2018-05-12 08:24:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5659456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mage_cat/pseuds/mage_cat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Malachite splits and Jasper is captured by the Crystal Gems, Peridot has to confront where she came from, what she's become, and where everything is going. Set after "Island Remix."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Homeworld Fugue

**Author's Note:**

> This is it, the end of "Home, not Homeworld." I always felt that the end of Peridot settling in with the Crystal Gems would be the beginning of seeing what Jasper would add to the cast, but there's not near enough canon for me to speculate beyond this.  
> As it is, this turned out to be the longest story of the series, which is why I'm posting it more than a day after I intended. The Steven Birthday Bomb has already started to dismantle the theories I built this on and help build new ones, but I hope you enjoy the conclusion of the arc I wanted to write.

It had finally happened. Whatever precarious balance that had kept Malachite chained to the bottom of the ocean had broken, and the mentally tortured fusion had attempted an attack on the Crystal Temple. Peridot was stationed as ranged support from the beach house deck. She could make no claims of understanding the events that caused Malachite to split. It seemed to involve a great deal of Steven yelling in an attempt to call upon Lapis Lazuli's better nature. Peridot didn't care that Lazuli had flown off. All she cared about just then was that her old protector seemed to be out cold, her body half in the surf.

The others were still staring after the blue Gem's retreating form as Peridot knelt by Jasper's head. The orange Gem's body was fuzzing around the edges as she opened her eyes. The technician had made some rather extreme changes with her last regeneration. She wasn't surprised that there was no recognition in the soldier's expression until she focused on her gem itself. Even then she was understandably confused.

“Peridot?”

“Yes, the same one you came to this planet with.”

“What happened...” Jasper trailed off, like speaking was too much of a strain.

“It's too long a story just now.” Peridot did the best imitation she could of the Celestines she had worked with in Kindergartens, the Gems tasked with the care of the newly emerged, firm without being harsh. “Jasper, you are exhausted. I know what it looks like when a Gem is having difficulty holding onto her form. Let go. Rest. I am safe. I'll keep you safe.”

“That's not your...”

“I'm making it my job. Now retreat into your gem before I force the issue.”

Jasper grimaced as she released her hold on her physical form. Amethyst was the first to notice what she had been doing. The rest of the Crystal Gems turned one by one as Peridot examined the orange gem. There were no cracks or flaws. Jasper had clearly been pushed to her limits, but she would recover.

Peridot curled her hand protectively around Jasper as she looked up at Garnet. “You're not bubbling her.”

“She's the enemy.”

“So was I. Looked how that turned out.”

“That was different.”

“Why? Because I had information you needed? Because she's stronger than I was? I'm not asking you to let her run free. Something in the Temple can be used as a holding cell. Just talk to her before you consider bubbling her.”

“You weren't around for the war. She was. She's made her choices.”

“And none of the information she based those choices on has changed? This planet is the same? Homeworld is the same? The Crystal Gems are the same?”

“I agree with Peridot,” Steven said. “Everyone deserves a second chance. Right?”

“Remember what Fluorite said about 'why' questions?” Peridot added.

“She right,” said Amethyst, remembering the thoughts she and Peridot had shared within that fusion. Garnet gave in to the majority.

* * *

Several hours later, Peridot sat in a white room containing only a table, two chairs, and a bench, and watched as Jasper regenerated. It was no surprise to Peridot that she looked exactly the same as she had when they had last seen each other on the warship, before Jasper had spent months as part of Malachite. “Welcome back,” said Peridot. “The others agreed to let me be the first one to talk to you. I'm sure you have questions.”

“Where am I?”

“A holding cell in the Crystal Temple,” she answered simply, falling into the tone she had used for formal reports. “We rigged it up just for you. Prisoners aren't usually an issue.”

“You’re with them.” It was both stern and not a question.

“Yes.”

“How did _that_ happen?”

“I wasn't in the ship when it crashed. I had made it to an escape pod in time. I repaired this planet's Communication Hub and sent a distress message to Yellow Diamond. She never answered. In a last ditch effort to get off-planet before the Cluster emerged, I kidnapped Steven and tried to get him to use his healing abilities on the Homeworld Warp. He wasn't able to, and I was captured when Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl came to retrieve him. They discarded my limb enhancers after poofing me, since they didn't know what they were. They are all fine warriors, but their investigative skills leave something to be desired. At any rate, since they liked the idea of this planet's destruction even less than I did, we eventually agreed to work together to neutralize the Cluster. After we succeeded at that, I requested to join the team. I'm here to propose that you consider a similar alliance.”

“I'm not going to throw away my loyalty that easily,” Jasper said as she sat on the bench, as far from the green Gem as the room allowed. Her tone made it very clear how she felt about Peridot's story.

“This is where I point out to you that Yellow Diamond abandoned us.”

“No, she abandoned you! Why should that influence my decision?”

“Fair enough,” Peridot acknowledged as expressiveness began to seep back into her voice, “but if you did manage to get a message or yourself back to Gem-controlled territory, just what do you think Yellow Diamond's reaction would be to finding out that you failed your mission in such a _spectacular_ fashion? Or do I need to remind you that the only reason you were on this planet in the first place was to keep me safe while I checked on the Cluster? Capturing and securing the enemy combatants wasn't a bad idea, but then you refused to allow me to complete my portion of the mission, got into a fight with a prisoner that crashed our ship, lost me in the process, and then you got yourself imprisoned by our _informant_ in an unapproved fusion that _you_ initiated.”

“And just what do you think Yellow Diamond will do when she finds out what _you've_ done?”

“Oh, if Yellow Diamond ever captures me, I will be shards or worse. I have made peace with that. Which is not to say that I intend to make it easy for her, but I really couldn't give a piece of gravel about how disappointed she is with me in the meantime. Look, in your present situation, finding it within yourself to work with the Crystal Gems is your only pragmatic option.”

“This isn't about pragmatism, Peridot!” Jasper shouted, standing up again. “It's the principle of the matter! Not that you would know anything about principles, it seems.”

“Fine,” Peridot said as she stood up from her chair. “I'll leave you to think about your principles and the option of having your gem put into a stasis bubble until Yellow Diamond comes or the star at the center of this system engulfs the planet, whichever comes first!” She left through a door keyed only to open for one of the Crystal Gems.

* * *

When Peridot returned several hours later, she found Jasper lying flat on the bench, which was just big enough to accommodate her doing so. When Jasper saw who had entered, she returned to staring at the ceiling and said, “I should have let Onyx keep hassling you.” It was a reference to how they had met the first time Peridot had been assigned to repair a warship, which had required her to interact with some of the soldiers who worked on it.

“You don’t mean that, because you know that if you had she would have done the same thing to the next lower-ranking Gem she had to work with, someone who is not currently guilty of treason. Your honor would not allow for such habits in one of your subordinates. At least, not if I ever understood half of your lecturing.”

Jasper sat up. “Clearly you didn’t if you went and turned yourself into _this_ ,” she said gesturing in indication of how severely out of uniform Peridot was with her jumpsuit exchanged for a tunic and leggings and every trace of Yellow Diamond's emblem gone.

“I took control of the situation, just like you are always saying. I am sorry if the results leave you too disgusted to be impressed. You’re welcome for the fact that you are not currently space dust by the way.”

“I’ve risked shattering before for Yellow Diamond.”

“I’ve only ever had the possibility of it presented to me as a punishment, and I had done nothing to deserve it when I came to this planet.”

“And now that you _have_ done something to deserve it?”

Peridot sat in one of the chairs and considered how to answer that. “Did you know that it’s considered a small miracle for a human to live to see an entire century?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“They have developed some interesting philosophies to cope with how brief their lives are. Some humans maintain that it is important to seek as much personal fulfillment as possible, preferably while balancing it with service to others. That way, when they die, they do not regret the chances they missed out on. I can see the wisdom of this viewpoint. We can be more than just our designed functions you know.”

“And just what are you trying to be?”

Peridot smiled. “I found out that I like making music. I'm pretty good at it too. I've also been doing combat training. I'll never be much of a melee fighter on my own but,” she paused, summoned her boomerang, and laid it on the table, “it's not like my weapon requires that of me. How did the visits with the others go?”

“Steven came in to explain how he isn't Rose Quartz. I think I understood it. I don't understand why Rose Quartz did it, but I can accept that he isn't her. That shrimpy Amethyst was with him as some sort of bodyguard. She didn't say much. Couldn't get a read on her expression or body language either. Pearl and that fusion came in together too. I'm not sure if the old war stories were them trying to empathize with me or a way to make veiled threats. Then Garnet tried to turn it into some sort of post-fusion counseling session about Malachite.”

“Sounds better than my first day. I got outright threats.”

“There’s a glowing recommendation for joining.”

“In all fairness, it was just hours earlier that I had tried to shoot them all with a blaster I had rigged up in one of my arm attachments.” At the sight of Jasper's shocked expression in the face of this statement, Peridot shrugged.“I was on a hostile planet minus my escort. What else was I going to do?”

Jasper smirked. “You always did have more nerve than a Peridot has any right to.” She got up from the bench and sat in the chair across the table from the green Gem, pointing at the boomerang that was now between them. “So this really is yours?”

“I managed to summon it the first time I actually sat down and tried. Pearl’s instruction was helpful of course. It packs a pretty good punch too.”

“Yeah, I remember. You hit Malachite with a few.”

Peridot dismissed the weapon. Jasper was finally starting to sound like the person she had worked with, gruff but still reasonable. “What were you even thinking with that fusion ploy?”

“That Garnet was a cheat, and I couldn’t stand to lose to her.”

“You lost your head. That’s not like you.”

“This garbage planet does things to me.”

“This planet is a part of you. Literally. I’ve seen the Kindergarten where you were made. It’s not even that far from this exact location.”

“It failed its purpose as a colony. That’s all that matters.”

“There are some amazing things about this planet, it doesn’t deserve what Homeworld has planned for it, but you aren’t going to find out about them in this room. Agree to end hostilities. We might be able to get Garnet to agree to some sort of probation. If Yellow Diamond comes soon, you were a prisoner of war, no worse off than you are now.”

“Why do you care?”

“Like I said, I like this planet. It’s more home to me than Homeworld or any colony I've ever been assigned to ever was. I don’t want to see it annihilated, and it needs every defender it can get. I know you would be valuable to this team. I bet you would even surprise us in exactly what ways. The Crystal Gems didn’t need me as an engineer. Pearl is more than competent at that job. Having a real specialist on hand is helpful of course, and I'm still useful in that capacity, but they’ve come to value me more for things like asking new questions and finding solutions they hadn’t considered, and not just to mechanical problems. Just consider it.”

* * *

As soon as Peridot exited the holding cell, she saw Amethyst.

“I was looking for you. You decided on a round two with Jasper?”

“Well, round one ended in us shouting at each other which wasn't the effect I wanted.”

“You know I trust you Peri, but I still wanna know why you're doing this.”

“Amethyst, you know as well as I do that if I had not had vital information about the Cluster, I would be in bubbled stasis right now. I wouldn't have gotten the chance to know you or the others or learn about this planet or music or fusion. Jasper doesn't have that leverage, but she deserves that chance. She's not evil. She's just another one of Yellow Diamond's tools. Our Diamond didn't treat us exactly the same, you don't treat a wrench the same way you treat a battering ram, but I'm the only one here who knows what it is like to have Yellow Diamond's idea of loyalty twisting in your mind.”

“You’re not going to stop spending time with me just because there’s a bigger, stronger Quartz around are you?”

She took Amethyst's hand. “I have known Jasper for five hundred years. We had a good working relationship, which was the closest thing I had to a friend at the time. I hope to keep Jasper as a friend. You, however, were the one who taught me to laugh at myself and the one I’ve played music with. You were the one who found me at my lowest point and held me until the shaking stopped.” She paused. What she was about to say was something neither had said out loud to the other before. “You are the one that I fell in love with.”

“Good,” Amethyst said as she pulled her close. “Because I’m in love with you too.”

Peridot was home, and she was loved. She was free, and there was a chance that she could help a friend see what that was like. Earth really was an amazing planet.


End file.
